- When there is much running about and the soldiers
fall into rank, it means that the critical moment has
come. - When some are seen advancing and some retreating,
it is a lure. - When the soldiers stand leaning on their spears,
they are faint from want of food. - If those who are sent to draw water begin by
drinking themselves, the army is suff ering from thirst. - If the enemy sees an advantage to be gained and
makes no eff ort to secure it, the soldiers are exhausted.
32. If birds gather on any spot, it is unoccupied. Clamor
by night betokens nervousness.
33. If there is disturbance in the camp, the general’s
authority is weak. If the banners and fl ags are shifted
about, sedition is afoot. If the offi cers are angry, it
means that the men are weary.
34. When an army feeds its horses with grain and kills
its cattle for food, and when the men do not hang their
cooking pots over the campfi res, showing that they will
not return to their tents, you may know that they are
determined to fi ght to the death.
From: Lionel Giles, trans., Sun Tzu ̆ on the
Art of War, the Oldest Military Treatise in the
World (London: Luzac and Co., 1910).(cont inues)In the fi rst instance, the ephors announce in
proclamation the limit of age to which the service applies
for cavalry and heavy infantry; and, in the next place,
for the various artisans. So that, even on campaign, the
Spartans are well supplied with all the conveniences
enjoyed by people living as citizens at Sparta. All the
implements and instruments whatsoever which an army
may need in common are ordered to be in readiness,
some on wagons and others on baggage animals. In this
way anything omitted can hardly escape detection.
For the actual encounter under arms, the following
inventions are attributed to Lycurgos: the soldier has a
crimson-colored uniform and a heavy shield of bronze,
his theory being that such equipment has no sort of
feminine association and is altogether most warrior-
like. It is most quickly burnished; it is least readily
soiled. He further permitted those who were about the
age of early manhood to wear their hair long. For so, he
conceived, they would appear of larger stature, more
free and indomitable, and of a more terrible aspect. So
furnished and accoutered, he divided his hoplites into
six morai [regiments] of cavalry and heavy infantry.
Each of these hoplite morai has one polemarchos
[colonel], four lochagoi [captains], eight penteconters
[lieutenants], and sixteen enomotarchs [sergeants]. At aword of command any such morai can be formed readily
into either enomoties [single fi le], or into threes [three
fi les of men abreast] or sixes [six fi les of men abreast].
As to the idea, commonly entertained, that the tactical
arrangement of the Spartan heavy infantry is highly
complicated, no conception could be more opposed to
facts. For in the Spartan order the front-rank men are
all leaders, so that each fi le has everything necessary
to play its part effi ciently. In fact, this disposition is so
easy to understand that no one who can distinguish
one human being from another can fail to follow it.
One set have the privilege of leaders, the other the duty
of followers. Th e evolutional orders by which greater
depth or shallowness is given to the battle line are
given by word of mouth, by the enomotarch, and they
cannot be mistaken. None of these maneuvers presents
any diffi culty whatsoever to the understanding.
I will now speak of the mode of encampment,
sanctioned by the regulation of Lycurgos. To avoid
the waste incidental to the angles of the square, the
encampment, according to him, should be circular,
except where there was the security of a hill or
fortifi cation or where they had a river in the rear. He
had sentinels posted during the day along the place of
arms and facing inwards; since they are appointed not Xenophon: “Th e Spartan War Machine”
(ca. 375 b.c.e.) Greece738 Military: primary source documents